Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," Walter Benjamin attempts to describe how the advent of industrialization has changed the way art is produced, transmitted, and received, and the effect these changes have had on the notion of art itself. Benjamin's argument centers around the notion of a work's "aura," or "the unique appearance of a distance," meaning the unique, individual experience of a work in time and space that cannot be reproduced in the same way that the work itself can (Benjamin 2004: 795). In order to better understand Benjamin's notion of aura and the way photography, film, and other reproduced images contribute to its decay, one may consider an image of Benjamin himself as a case study in changes produced by the mechanical reproduction of art.

When Benjamin talks about "distance," he is referring to distance not only in terms of space, but also time, because the particular...
[ View Full Essay]